Ad agency Mccann’s Dumb Ways to Die became the most awarded ad in the history of the Cannes advertising festival, with its offbeat public service announcement for Metro Trains Melbourne finishing the festival with 32 Lions, including five Grand Prix awards, 18 gold, three silver and six bronze.

Passwords for online banking, social networks and email could be replaced with the wave of a hand if prototype technology developed by Intel makes it to tablets and laptops. Intel is working on sensors that could be implemented into laptops or tablets to scan the pattern of veins in a user's palm to verify their identity. The technology resembles the finger-print scanners found on some computers, but Intel believes this new method will be much more effective.

Intel has launched a new campaign that creates a personalised movie for Facebook users, drawing upon their social media data to create ‘Me The Musical’. The campaign, which launched in Japan to promote its new Ultrabook, takes Facebook users on an entertaining journey, via song and dance, through world events. Along the way, it adds a personal touch by including friends from Facebook and reminders of significant individual milestones.

Is Facebook destined to become the next AOL? This month saw the social network transform into a media hub, realising Zuckerberg's strategy of positioning Facebook as an "Internet within the Internet". The move has worked for games, providing huge ad revenues and rich demographic data yields, but will users be happy to watch Netflix films, stream Spotify playlists and read eBooks within Facebook's site? Or is it too similar to AOL's doomed "walled garden" strategy of the early noughties?

This month saw Google take the revamped Google+ public, buying Groupon rival Daily Deal and unveiling its potentially revolutionary Wallet service in the US. Meanwhile, Twitter's new analytics tool could help marketers shed light on the dark art of social media ROI, and the relationship between retweets and revenue on the micro-blogging site.

September also provided some prime examples of how not to get ahead in digital media. Yahoo fired fiery boss Bartz over the phone, leaving the former dotcom darling looking for a buyer. RIM saw its profits collapse as Blackberry lost its grip on the mobile market, and newly bought MySpace has been forced to postpone its grand launch. Award for worst CRM of the month goes to Netflix, which fumbled a re-branding and re-pricing strategy that outraged customers and forced a humble YouTube apology from the CEO, which you can view in all its wince-inducing glory below.

On the research side, we've got some telling stats on mobile broadband this month. 1 in 10 of eBay's customers now buy via mobiles, while the UN found that over 10% world population now has mobile broadband. Food for thought for anyone doubting the potential of mobile...